Noosa Heads

Noosa Heads is the Sunshine Coast's most upmarket destination, a compact resort town built around a sheltered north-facing beach and the walking tracks of Noosa National Park. Hastings Street is the address for restaurants, boutique shops, and cafes — it's one of the better restaurant strips in Queensland, with a concentration of decent cooking in a pleasant outdoor setting.

Main Beach faces north across Laguna Bay, which gives it unusually calm water for a surf beach — it receives swell but is protected from the full force of the southeast trades. The national park starts immediately east of the beach and is accessible on foot. The Noosa River flows between Noosa Heads and the suburb of Noosaville, and canoe hire and river cruises are available from the riverside parks along Gympie Terrace.

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Noosa's development was shaped decisively by a planning scheme adopted in the 1980s that limited building height to the level of the tree canopy and restricted development on the national park headland. When other Queensland resort towns were racing to build high-rise towers, Noosa preserved low-rise streetscapes and public access to its beaches. The result is now worth billions in tourism — Noosa's reputation as the Sunshine Coast's premium destination rests almost entirely on planning decisions made 40 years ago that most coastal towns failed to make.

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